Like Fire and Water
by livingletter135
Summary: The four club members have two new members join them. A mischievous boy and a bubbly girl. Plus, Oreki seems to be realizing that a side of him existed that he never knew of.
1. The Newbies

**The Newbies**

I could feel the heat that surrounded my room. Trying hard not to move too much, I kicked my blanket off my body with my foot.

"Houtaro?" I heard the door open and my sister poke her head in. "You're still asleep?!" she groaned. I wanted to open my eyes and let her know that I was awake before she began annoying me but I couldn't find the energy to do so. "Hey, get up! You'll be late for school." She began. That's weird… she's trying to get me up… something she usually avoids. "Houtaro! You've got 15 minutes left before school starts!"

That ended it. I sat upright and stared at my alarm clock. It didn't go off this morning? Maybe I forgot to set it? How could I sleep in exactly?

Oh wait… I could sleep in anytime.

"What are you lost in?" my sister's harsh tone snapped me back to attention. I slowly turned to her and stared. "Right. I'm off to the store, so make sure you get to school ok? If you're still here when I come back…"

* * *

I sat in the clubroom. Alone. Satoshi, Ibara and Chitanda had just stepped out to get something to eat. I wanted to go too but I was tired. I decided not to think about it and let it pass.

"I'm so excited about this!"

My senses alerted to the voice of a girl. It was a bit faint but it definitely came from the same floor, a few classes away possibly? But I couldn't recognize her voice, I didn't know her.

"Yeah. I wonder what we would do."

Another person this time. A boy. Why would anyone come up to our floor? From what they were saying, it sounded as if they were up to something. If we took it in a bad way, it could even be vandalism.

But it can't. The boy had said that he wondered what they would do… so the vandal part is out. No, this was something else.

"We're here." The girl cried out. Two figures were outside the door of the clubroom. It slid open and in came a slightly tanned girl with bright red hair that was tied up into a ponytail and a boy with spiky blonde hair. "Hi." The girl gave a big smile. "This is the Classics club, right?" she asked.

"Uh… Yeah." I stared at the two.

"Great!" she grinned.

"We'd like to join this club." The boy declared.

* * *

"Are you the only club member?" the girl stared at me with a slight look of pity.

"No." I felt a bit offended and my tone was a little bit harsher than I wanted It to be. I didn't really know why I was being so unfriendly but I just was. Something about that girl made me dislike her.

"Where are the others then?" the boy asked. I was just about to answer when the door slid open and the familiar cute girl stepped in, her expression fierce and grave,

"Oreki-san!" she cried out. She seemed not to have noticed the two in the room and she was out of breath. "We-"

"Calm down Chii-chan!" Ibara put a hand on Chitanda's shoulder as she stepped into the room.

"Hey Houtaro!" Satoshi ran past the two girls at me with a flyer. Ibara face-palmed herself as Satoshi slammed the flyer on the desk in front of me. "All expense paid trip to a hot spring close by o the winning club of the triathlon this week." He rushed out.

"What do we have to do?!" the new girl suddenly cried out. I'm not sure why but my eyes floated over to Chitanda for a second. Her eyes widened in shock as she hurried over to Satoshi and peeked over his shoulder.

"Who're you?" she asked sweetly.

"Me? I'm Himeji Ayaka from class 1-E." The girl grinned again.

"Oh… well… nice to meet you, Himeji-san." Chitanda bowed.

"As I was saying, we should join this. It's only for the study break week we get. The tournament is close by. There's a relay, swimming and biking. At least two members in a sport and each member in one. We should decide who goes in two sports since there are three sports and only four of us." Satoshi continued as if two unfamiliar people in our clubroom was a daily event.

"Actually… we have 6 members now." I said slowly. Satoshi and Ibara gasped while Chitanda clapped. That was when they noticed the two members.

"Hi." They said in unison.


	2. The Lady

**The Lady**

"But Houtaro!" Satoshi began.

"Come on Oreki-kun!" Himeji tried. She had this motivational look on her face.

"Alright that's it!" Ibara frowned. "Chii-chan, please try to convince him."

Crap.

We all turned to Chitanda, who just sat there, looking down at her lap. She was sitting next to me, which, in my mind, was dangerous for me. A few moments passed.

"Chii-chan?" Ibara repeated as she leaned over and looked at Chitanda. Satoshi stared too as Ibara touched Chitanda's shoulder. To everyone's shock, she started to fall over, onto me. On quick impulse, I managed to catch her. Ibara and Satoshi were on their feet, leaning over. "She's… asleep?"

"What?" Himeji grinned. The new boy, Kaiko Omi, also from Himeji's class stared at Chitanda for a few seconds before he turned to me.

"She's not asleep." He began. What? Was Chitanda faking? "She… passed out."

"Passed out?" the words escaped me before I could stop myself.

"Yup. She's been out for quite a while… sitting up too."

"Oreki, just leave her on your lap or something." Ibara suggested. What the—does she realize what she is saying?

"No." I helped Chitanda up. She seemed to have woken up again.

"Oh! Why is everyone staring at me?" she asked turning a little red.

"Nothing. Chitanda-san! Can you convince Houtaro to join the tournament? Please?" Satoshi smiled. Oh great.

"Oreki-san…" Chitanda turned to me, an oh-so-serious look on her face. "Please do this!"

* * *

That was blackmail. Pure blackmail. They knew I could never refuse Chitanda. I just didn't expect them to use it against me so quick. But that's not what got me so frustrated. Turns out, I got chosen to do the relay with Omi as my partner. Now, I know you would think that me calling Omi 'Omi" so soon is weird, but I figured Omi was a better choice than 'Kaiko' since it saved me a lot of breath.

"Hey Houtaro?" Satoshi suddenly began out of the blue. I turned to him as we walked home, dragging my bike. "Tell me honestly… What do you think of Himeji-san?"

The question made my heart skip a beat. Asking something like that totally random must mean that there is something serious that he wants to tell me. But we had just met Himeji and Omi today… what could be so serious that he would ask me a question like that? I took a deep breath.

"She's a lot like you." I started. "But she's a bit… creepy." I managed. Satoshi only nodded and grinned.

"I thought so too. But that's not what I wanted to point out." Satoshi lowered his voice. "Today, when Chitanda-san asked you to join us, I caught Himeji-san giving Chitanda-san a weird look."

"A weird look?" I echoed. "Like what?"

"I couldn't really make out what type of look it was. I just wanted to let you about it." Satoshi shrugged. A weird look huh. I knew something about Himeji was wrong, but it was—as I said before—creepy. Why was I getting so worked up just because of that? To be honest, I noticed that I paid a lot of attention to something regarding Chitanda ever since a few weeks ago… a few weeks before Valentine's Day to be exact. Now that I think about it, Chitanda seemed really excited about this hot spring prize. Maybe putting in a little effort so we would win wouldn't hurt?

What am I thinking? I didn't want t do this in the first place. Even then… Chitanda would be really disappointed if we los-

"Houtaro?" Satoshi's voice brought me back to attention. "Where are you going?" When his words sank in, I realized that I had walked past my house and two more. I was just so caught up in my thoughts that I didn't even realize. "Jah, goodnight." Satoshi walked off as I went inside.

"Hey!" my sister began. "Guess who called? Come on! Guess! Guess! Guess why I'm sooo excited!"

"Uh…" Who could have called that could get my sister so excited? It couldn't be-"Chitanda?" I said the only name that came into my head.

"No. Dad!" my sister froze. "Wait a minute… Who's Chitanda?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Oh crap… I was afraid of this…

"She's… a friend." I concluded.

"Ooooh! 'She'! Yeah, Houtaro? Tell me more." She teased.

"There is no more. She's just a friend of mine." I was starting to feel a bit annoyed.

"A friend you were hoping to have given you a call. A friend who is a girl. Come on Houtaro! Don't think I'm stupid!" she scoffed. Don't think you're stupid? Well, you must be.

"I'm serious." I sighed. "She would never look at me that way."

Crap.

"Ooooh! This is getting interesting!" my sister grinned. "Is she your crush?"

"No. I told you. We are just friends." I knew there was no point in saying so anymore seeing that she already had it in her head that Chitanda was my-

Wait a second…

_Was_ she my crush? Do I really like her that way? If so, why haven't I realized yet?

"Cute…" I muttered unconsciously as a picture of Chitanda floated across my mind.

"Houtaro! Are you fantasizing about her already?!" my sister laughed. Crap! I had forgotten she was even there.

"No." my voice wavered a bit as I lied. I ignored her and tried to slip upstairs.

"Actually… I did get a call from a girl." My sister's sentence made me freeze.

"What did you say?" I turned to her slowly.

"You heard me." My sister gave an evil smile. "I got a call from a girl. Her voice was very… soft… and, what can I say?—cute."

"Hm." I tried to calm down over the billions of possibilities. "What did she say?"

"She said, 'Tell Oreki-san I said good luck, and that I'm counting on him. I'm sure that if he tries, we can win this!'" my sister grinned. "Ring a bell?" Of course it would; that's Chitanda alright. But… could my sister be bluffing?

No way. She wouldn't know about anything that we have to win and she most obviously won't know the way Chitanda talks to me or her voice either. No, there's no way she could be bluffing.

Chitanda really called.

"Houtaro?"

"Huh? Uh, no." I looked directly at her. "Doesn't ring a bell at all."

"Yeah? If you want it that way, then fine. Anything you for dinner?" she looked back.

"Just tea." I hurried up to my room. The first thing I did was take out my cell phone and the note book that I kept everyone's numbers in and look up Chitanda's number. I sent a short mail to her asking about the phone call.

One minute passed. Then two. In the last few seconds of the third minute, I almost fell off my chair when my phone rang loudly.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi. Is that you, Oreki-san?" I heard Chitanda ask. Oh crap.

"Um, I'm kind of…" I lowered my voice as I heard my sister sweeping the hallway in front of my door—obviously as an excuse to eavesdrop on me. "I'm kind of in a situation where… can we cut the call and use mail?"

"But Oreki-san! I—" she gasped. "Its… ok. We should mail if you can't talk. Ah! Goodbye!"

"Good—" I was halfway through when she hung up. "Cute…" I breathed. Silence passed and I was dozing off when I snapped back to attention and almost fell off my chair again as my phone rang. "Hello?"

"Oreki-san!" Chitanda literally gasped. "Forgive me for hanging up like that but what did you say?" she asked.

"I-I just said goodbye…" I blinked hard.

"Oh…" she calmed down. "Ok then. See you at school tomorrow…"

* * *

That night, as I lay in bed in my blue pajamas, I kept thinking about what my sister said. I just couldn't picture myself with Chitanda that way. I was used to being her friend already. How would it be like if we did—

Does she even think about me that way? I'm not even sure if she thinks of thinking of me this way. In fact, I'm not sure if I like her that way. Why was this getting so difficult? I think this is how Satoshi feels… kind of…

What would Satoshi do at a time like this?

* * *

"Hey! Yeah, sorry for calling so late but there's something I have to ask."

…

"What the—!? Houtaro! Do you know what time it is?!" Satoshi yelled. I kept silent and sighed until he calmed down. "Yeah, what is it?"

"I can't sleep." I said slowly.

"God Houtaro, I'm gonna kill you tomorrow. Seems like a bit of Chitanda's essence is rubbing off on you." Satoshi cursed.

"Yeah, but I can't sleep. I just read a novel about this guy who falls for this girl, but it's in complete and that's bugging me." I made something up.

"So?"

"Well… help me out. How do most romance end?" I bit my tongue. How lame did that even sound?

"I thought you read manga! Anyways, why are you asking me?"

"I just assumed you would know cause you're kind of with Ibara an—"

"Yeah, yeah." He cut me off.

"Um… well… I read up to the part where he finds it hard to sleep. That's it. End of story." I wanted relief. "What do you think he would do?"

"For one thing, I have no idea." Satoshi yawned. "I suppose he would call that girl he likes and finally go back to sleep. Or even show up at her house just to see her."

"That seems obsessive…"

"Yeah! Not all romance stories end the same way you know! I'm just suggesting the possibilities!" Satoshi snapped. "Well, I don't know, I think Mayaka or Chitanda would know what to do here."

"I don't think they'll be awake…" I muttered.

"I wasn't awake! Did you care!? Come on Houtaro! Just call one of them and—Something—oh whatever—Goodnight."

The line went dead.

I took a deep breath. He said to call her… ok, so he didn't exactly specify whether I should call her, but it was literally the same thing. Should I call her this late? Would she even be awake? Could she turn into an angry beast like Satoshi had just now?

Uh… no…

Well, the other thing that he suggested was a total no-go. After debating with myself, I finally took my phone, dialed her number and waited for her to pick up. I just really badly needed sleep.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Uh… Hi." I managed.

"Oreki-san. What's wrong?" she asked.

"I… just wanted to talk to you. That's why I… called." I felt my cheeks warm up. "It's ok if you want to sleep, I'll call later—"

"No." Chitanda giggled. "It's ok. I can't sleep at all tonight. Thank you for calling, Oreki-san. Now I won't have to be as bored as before."

"You can't sleep either?" it slipped out.

"Oreki-san! How funny. I was actually thinking of calling you just now."

So she was thinking about me…  
"So… what's up?" I asked, trying to start a conversation.

"I'm not really sure. I'm sitting in the garden right now."

"Chitanda, I meant what you were doing."

"Oh!" she paused for a while. "I'm… thinking of something."

"What?" I asked. Maybe Satoshi was right… Chitanda's curiosity was rubbing off on me…

"Whites Day."

Holy crap.

Whites Day. I had completely forgotten.

"That's tomorrow right?" I felt a shiver run down my spine full of guilt as I said it.

"Today, to be precise. It's after mid-night."

"So… uh… happy Whites Day." What should I do?" "Uh… Chitanda?" was that right? What do people do on Whites Day exactly? I know it's a bit like Valentines… I just don't get it.

I heard Chitanda break into a laugh.

"Oreki-san." She began after she calmed down. "You really don't get it do you." She said it as if she had read my mind.

Great, now she actually sounds smarter than me.

"I guess I don't. I mean, I've never really bothered with it." I said truthfully.

"Oh… Well, never mind. In Japan, Valentine's Day is typically observed by girls and women presenting chocolate gifts, either store-bought or handmade, usually to boys or men, as an expression of love, courtesy, or social obligation. Handmade chocolate is usually preferred by the recipient because of the perception of sincerity, effort, and emotion put into a home-made confection. On White Day, the reverse happens: men who received a honmei-choco or giri-choco on Valentine's Day are expected to return the favor by giving gifts. Traditionally, popular White Day gifts are cookies, jewellery, white chocolate, white… Uh" Chitanda laughed nervously. "…lingerie, and marshmallows. Sometimes the term literally, sanbaigaeshi is used to describe the generally recited rule that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine's gift. But even if you didn't receive a choco on Valentines, You can give it to anyone. A gift I mean." Chitanda said softly.

"Did you… did you just read it out of some…" I began.

"I searched it in the library yesterday…" she said to me, her voice full of guilt.

"Ah… I get it…" I half-lied.

"Oreki-san… who are you going to give your Whites Day gift to?" she asked out of nowhere. I fell into shock for a few moments.

"I don't really know." I muttered.

"Oh well, never mind. Thank you for calling Oreki-san." Chitanda gave a sweet laugh. "I'm a bit sleepy now…" she yawned. "I'm sorry." She giggled again.

Cute…

"Jah, goodnight Chitanda. Sweet dreams." To be honest, I was a bit sleepy too. Satoshi was right.

"Good… night… Ore… ki…"

…

Silence.

"Ch-Chitanda?!" I called out. "Chitanda?" oh crap. "Did you fall asleep?" No reply. That girl was a definite handful. And by what she said, she's obviously sleeping in the garden. Shaking my head, I hung up and closed my eyes.


End file.
